Waking up to Bullwinkle

The biggest news from this past week was Taj’s first camping trip – at Glacier National Park (GNP). I love this kid. We are in some of the most inspiring scenery in this entire country, but he’s content grabbing handfuls of rocks and throwing them in whatever lake or stream or waterfall we’ve hiked to. He could care less about the scenery. I’m not being facetious about loving this either. It’s a reminder about how complicated sometimes being a grown up gets and how my need to be “wowed” makes it hard to enjoy simple pleasures. I’ve been backpacking a plenty, but I have only car-camped a couple of times – it’s a different beast entirely. When you backpack, every ounce of everything matters. Packing a toothbrush is just one more ounce to having a miserable trip. You cut out as much as possible and if your tent and breath smell like a big fart because you didn’t bring deodorant, hiking partner be damned. So I went out to make a couple of purchases before our camping trip – an inflatable mattress, and bear spray.

I’ll tell you what, when you’re getting ready to drag your 1 yr old and wife into grizzly country with snow still on the ground, it is tempting to want to spend money on so many different gadgets and gear. I found myself thinking if I bought that thing or this thing then we would really have a great trip. I had to take step back and remind myself that camping is all about simplifying and roughing it a little bit and remembering that enjoying your time with others isn’t about stuff.

Well sort of…so I bought this inflatable mattress – good thing I only went with the single height instead of the double height. I did not want to buy a battery-powered pump specifically designed for the mattress. (It was an item that comes under the category of crap for your crap. I realize that in modern life you have to buy crap, but I like to draw a line about buying crap to help me with the crap I already own). So I bought a cigarette-adapter air compressor that could blow up the mattress but also the tires on the 4runner if we ever get a flat in the middle of nowhere. Since Montana qualifies as an entire state for “the middle of nowhere” this is an inevitability more than a possibility. The guy at Wal-mart promised me it had the adapters I would need to blow up the mattress. Well it didn’t – which is why I am glad that I only bought the single thickness mattress. After huffing and puffing for no less than 90 minutes (no exaggeration), I have post-traumatic stress flashbacks when I see kids blowing up balloons.

So take a look at this tent:

We about froze to death in this circa 1980’s tent I bought used from the librarian at the mental hospital in Baltimore – she was a nice little old lady and she made it sound like it was new. I knew I was in trouble when she handed me a disintegrating box that was held together by an entire roll of duct tape. Sarah thinks it could be from the 70’s given that the dude pictured in the instructional manual had bell-bottoms and raging side-burns. Out-door tech has come a long way since canvas. Lets just say the tent was “well ventilated” – which would be great in 90 degree heat but not so much when its 30 degrees out. At least Taj didn’t seem to mind. He totally got into the whole sleeping in the same bed as mommy and daddy and turning it into a trampoline- which was cute until he vaulted head first into the ground.

Oh and the bear spray. Well Sarah and I have recently been watching Dog the Bounty Hunter. Watch Dog take down a criminal with mace and you’ll have a pretty good sense of what Bear spray is all about. When you get to GNP, you can actually take Ranger lead courses in shooting practice cans of mace at each other that contain sugar water or something. I think its just an excuse for the rangers to mace the tourists with something sweet so they taste better to the bears.

Also, relaxing by the fire after an alpine hike is different with a 1 yr old. It’s more a high stakes game of “Are you watching me now when I put my hand in the flame”

But seriously, our trip to GNP has been the highlight of my month off, besides really intimate time cuddling to avoid freezing to death, we saw some amazing wildlife and scenery. Rather than wax eloquent, I’ll just drop in a photo:

If that don't wanna make you come visit I don't know what will

Other recent adventures and mundanevents:

Drinking Ginseng beer at the local brewery with our new pastor while Taj was wandering around and making eyes with all the ladies (where was he when I was single).

Going to the “beach” Missoula-style- which involves walking a few blocks to the river, and swimming with bearded mountain men and women coming out of the hills for their weekly bath. Actually it’s a lot of fun, there is a Missoula beach scene at the river with a lot of families, hippies and an occasional mountain man all enjoying the river.

Emptying the last of our boxes and getting the guest bed and room ready for the flood of visitors we expect.

My friend Nate is getting ready to take the California bar exam. He recommended watching a movie “A lawyer walks into a bar”. I’m glad I don’t have to take that test – 3 days long. No wonder lawyers are such jerks. If I had to take a test like that, I’d probably come out a jerk on the other side too. Just kidding Nate, make that test your litter box and pee all over it. If you don’t pass, you’ll at least make an impression.

Sarah made homemade jam out of blueberries, and I’m trying to make homemade pickles from a recipe from my “Back to Basics” book, A Gehring (a necessary on the Montana bibliography)